Coaches Confidence with RO BHS

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I coach a gymnast who's basically doing her round off back handspring on her own on tumble track, but still won't go for it without a spot. I'm still kind of a beginner coach, and I'm not sure how to help her build confidence in herself. I think saying that I'm going to spot and taking my hand away (not spotting) kind of breaks the trust with the gymnast, and I'm looking for some ideas or advice on how I can help! She also "needs" a spot for a standing back handspring by the way if that changes things.
 
I agree with never telling them you're spotting and then not doing it.
What has worked with some of my gymnasts, is spotting but just following the movement with no support but keeping my hands there and slowly just not touching them if it is not necessary (well, sometimes I still touched when it was fine, but with time you usually end up not touching). As they get more confident, just stand there without following the whole movement, then slowly taking a small step back, then another,...
Very important to go back a couple of steps the next day they work on the skill again. Ie. they did it the last time with no-touching spot, then the next day, spot fully for a couple of turns, light spot another couple and then try again the no-touching.
I would work those steps first on the standing one. In those you can first start with your hand touching, then try to spot but start with your hand not touching the back of the gymnast,...
 
Does she have standing BHS? If not, start with that. On tumbletrak, then on a reasonably-springy mat (a newish 4- or 8-incher works best, but you can also take an older softer mat and unfold panel mats on top of it), then on the floor.
You want her to start and finish in exactly the same position, what I call "curled" or "question mark" position; back rounded, hips mostly tucked under, knees slightly bent, eyes on the toes, arms down, wrists curled so fingertips are right in front of the knees. She should start from this position with no additional arm swing, and finish by sticking (NO REBOUND!) in exactly this same position.

Once she can do a standing BHS that starts and ends in this position, you're done spotting her on backhandsprings forever. You should never need to spot another one after this point.

Next step: on whatever surface she's comfortable, she does this standing BHS to and from curled position and sticks with no rebound whatsoever, and no movement of the feet after landing. Once she lands, she stops however long she needs to in this position (NO MOVING THE FEET OR SWINGING THE ARMS), then does another standing BHS from that landing position. Since by this point she can both land an takeoff from this same position, she can string any arbitrary number of BHS together in this manner: curl, standing BHS to curl, stop as long as she likes, repeat. I like the athlete to be able to do at least three like this, but your only real limitation is the length of your tumbletrak/strip of floor/whatever.

Have her do this a million times, and magic will happen. Don't tell her to connect, don't tell her not to connect, just tell her to do consecutive BHS that start and finish in curl; over time, the pause in between will get shorter and shorter as she gains confidence, until it disappears completely, and she's doing connected series of standing BHS.

Take this from tumbletrak to springy mats to floor.

Then replace the first BHS in the series with a knee-lunge roundoff. Then a fall-step roundoff. Then one-step hurdle roundoff.

This approach has four major advantages:
1) By stopping in curled shape in each connection, you emphasize correct connecting technique with good shapes and a properly-patient sit-back in between each skill
2) The spotting required is minimal, even when adding multiple BHS in series
3) Because they know they can stop in between skills, they feel a level of control that tends to make mental blocks less likely
4) Should she develop a back tumbling mental block down the road, she's got easy steps she can go back to and work her way back up

EDIT to add: I started teaching RO-BHS with this method about 12 years ago. Among the kids that have gone through this process with me in that time, not a single one has developed undercut backhandsprings, and not a single one has developed significant back tumbling mental blocks.
 
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